Institute Wide Curriculum Committee
Minutes from April 1, 2009
Present:
Jonas Braasch, chair
Jeff Durgee
Sharon Kunkel
Bruce Piper
Audrey Bennett
Prabhat Hajela
Lee Odell
Dick Smith
Zsuzsanna Szabo
Dave Spooner
Sam Wait
1) The minutes from the meeting on March 18, 2009 were approved unanimously.
2) School of Science- Sam Wait presented the changes.
 Template change for Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology was approved unanimously.
 Course deletion:
 BIOL 4450 Environmental Biology
 Course Change:
 BIOL 4850 Principles of Ecology- term
 New course:
 BIOL 4970 Non-Thesis Research- S. Wait will revise the statement on the culminating
experience and add “with department approval”.
Lee Odell asked that the course syllabus be used as an example of a good format. S. Kunkel will keep
track of these. The course was approved unanimously.
3) School of Architecture- Jonas Braasch presented the overview of the change for ARCH 4860- Applied
Psychoacoustics- term, description and credit hours. J. Braasch will review the syllabus with Szuzsanna. The
learning outcomes are good, direct and measurable. (This is another example of a course syllabus with wellstated learning outcomes).
4) School of Engineering- Dick Smith provided the Committee with an overview of the changes.
 Course Deletions:
 ENGR 1310- Intro to Engineering Electronics
 ECSE 4980- Senior Design Project
 EPOW 4080- Semiconductor Power Electronics (keep the ECSE 4080 version)
 EPOW 4850-Electric Power Engineering Design
 EPOW 4940-Electric Power Engineering Project
 EPOW 4980-Senior Project
 EPOW 6880-The Utility as a Business
 EPOW 6940- Electric Power Engineering Project
 EPOW 6960-Topics in Electric Power Engineering
 EPOW 6970-Professional Project
 EPOW 6980- Master’s Project
 EPOW 6990-Master’s Thesis
 EPOW 9990- Dissertation
Institute Wide Curriculum Committee
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Minutes from April 1, 2009
Course Changes:
 CHME 4400 Chromatographic Separation Processes- description change
 (The Committee reiterated the policy: Cross listed courses or courses offered at the 4000
and 6000 level descriptions should include the statement that says the students cannot
receive credit for both courses)
 CHME 6510 Advanced Fluid Mechanics I- title change to Advanced Transport Phenomena I
 CHME 6520 Advanced Fluid Mechanics II- title change to Advanced Transport Phenomena II
 ECSE 4790 Microprocessor Systems- description change
 ECSE 6630 Digital Image and Video Processing-term
 ECSE 6640 Digital Picture Processing-description, term
 ECSE 9990- title change to Dissertation
Number changes:
 EPOW 4010 to ECSE 4110 Power Engineering Fundamentals
 EPOW 4020 to ECSE 4120 Electromechanics
 EPOW 4030 to ECSE 4130 EPE Laboratory-description change
 EPOW 6900 to ECSE 6910 Seminar in Electric Power Engineering
 EPOW 4840 to ECSE 4180 Industrial Power System Design - term and description change
 EPOW 6090 to ECSE 6090 to ECSE Advanced Power Electronics-term and description
 EPOW 6810 to ECSE 6110 Power Engineering Analysis-term
 EPOW 6820 to ECSE 6120 Power Quality-term and description
 EPOW 6830 to ECSE 6130 Protective Relaying - term and description change
 EPOW 6840 to ECSE 6140 Power Generation Operation and Control- term change and
description
 EPOW 6850 to ECSE 6150 Electric and Magnetic Fields-term and description
 EPOW 6860 to ECSE 6160 Surge Phenomena in EPOW-term
 EPOW 6870 to ECSE 6170 Mechanical Aspects of Electric Power Apparatus-term
 EPOW 6890 to ECSE 6190 Computer Methods in EPOW-term and description
New Courses:
 BMED 4440 Biophotonics (update description to say students can’t get credit for the 4000
and 6000 version)
 BMED 6440 Biophotonics The Committee suggested some minor corrections and reiterated
the use the phrase learning outcomes not learning objectives.
The courses were approved unanimously.
D. Smith would like to discuss at a future meeting the practice of cross-listing 4000 and 6000 level
courses.
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CHME 6460 Biomolecular Engineering
CHME 4460 Biomolecular Engineering- The learning outcomes need to be redone and a broader
academic integrity statement is desired.
CHME 6440 Chromatographic Separation Processes-This is a 6000 level version of an existing 4000
level course. The pre-reqs are not listed but the department will add Transport Phen I and II as prerequisites or permission of instructor.
The motion to approve all of the new courses, changes and deletions was approved unanimously.
J. Braasch raised the issue of duplication and overlap of courses. How closely should the Committee be
looking at this issue? Prabhat Hajela suggested asking the faculty for information on the courses that are
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Institute Wide Curriculum Committee
Minutes from April 1, 2009
dubiously close. There was general consensus that this was an important issue and a responsibility of the
Committee. By asking for additional information, the faculty may find opportunities for collaboration. P.
Hajela raised another issue, the practice of cross-listing a graduate and undergraduate course. As more
students are admitted to the coterminal program we need to make sure we have enough courses for the
students to take at the graduate level.
5) Task Force on Freshman Preparation at Rensselaer- Bruce Piper provided some background on the Task
Force. He distributed the charge and asked the IWCC for endorsement and/or, approval. There are a number
of complex issues. The Task Force will have recommendations for the Provost by early Fall. Committee
members asked if it would be possible to ramp up their efforts in order to get information out to the
incoming students over the summer.
6) J. Braasch and S. Wait will review the recommendation from Ben Cohen and bring it to a future meeting.
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